ONS: 03 January 2016

AFRICA: A US embassy official stated that the United States will be ending its forward operating base for drones in southern Ethiopia.

AMERICAS: Newly elected Mexican mayor Gisela Mota was assassinated at her home in the city of Temixco hours after taking her oath of office.

ASIA: Gunfire and blasts were heard at an Indian Air Force base that was attacked by militants a day earlier, and TV channels reported two gunmen were still at large in the sprawling facility near the border with Pakistan.

EUROPE: An Iraqi national tipped off German police about a possible terrorist attack eight days before intelligence from the United States and France led authorities to evacuate two Munich train stations on New Year‘s Eve.

MIDDLE EAST: Israel indicted two Jewish extremists suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents — a case that has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

TECHNOLOGY: More than 209,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. are unfilled, and postings are up 74% over the past five years, according to a Peninsula Press (a project of the Stanford University Journalism Program) 2015 analysis of numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

TOP STORY

Middle East: Protests erupt around the region and governments respond to the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr

○ UN Rights Chief, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, questioned whether due process had been observed during the trials of those executed.

Ethiopia: A US embassy official stated that the United States will be ending its forward operating base for drones in the country’s south. (AP)

Mozambique: Foreign agricultural investment bolsters a country that has struggled with poverty and famine. (Xinhua)

Rwanda: The United States hit out at President Paul Kagame’s intention to run for a third term, saying it was “deeply disappointed” and concerned by the move. (AFP)

AMERICAS

Honduras: The government says it has received a request from the United States for the extradition of former vice president and businessman Jaime Rosenthal, who is accused of money laundering. (AP)

Mexico: Newly elected mayor Gisela Mota was assassinated at her home in the city of Temixco hours after taking her oath of office. (BBC)

United States: A group of activists and militiamen protesting the federal prosecution of two ranchers occupied a remote federal building in the rural southeastern corner of Oregon. (NYT)

ASIA

Region: Beijing has rejected a protest from Vietnam after a Chinese plane landed on a contested reef in the South China Sea, saying the operation took place within Chinese territory. (AFP)

China: Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers will press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specializing in books critical of mainland China’s leadership went missing. (AP)

India: Gunfire and blasts were heard at an Indian Air Force base that was attacked by militants a day earlier, and TV channels reported two gunmen were still at large in the sprawling facility near the border with Pakistan. (Reuters)

EUROPE

France: Investigators discovered jihadist propaganda on the computer of a French Muslim who rammed his car into four soldiers – only hours after a prosecutor ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack. (Telegraph)

Germany: An Iraqi national tipped off police about a possible terrorist attack eight days before intelligence from the United States and France led authorities to evacuate two Munich train stations on New Year‘s Eve. (DPA)

Greece: A drowned two-year-old boy became the first known migrant casualty of the year after the crowded dinghy he was travelling in slammed into rocks off Agathonisi island. (Telegraph)

Turkey: An Ankara court on Saturday remanded in custody pending trial two citizens suspected of belonging to ISIS and planning a double suicide bombing in the capital on New Year’s Eve. (AFP)

MIDDLE EAST

Egypt: Petroleum Minister Tarke El Molla said the country’s outstanding arrears to foreign oil companies rose to $3 billion at the end of December 2015 from $2.7 billion at the end of October. (Reuters)

Iraq: Fighters from so-called Islamic State (IS) have continued to pursue counterattacks on the edges of Ramadi a week after the city was recaptured by government troops. (BBC)

Israel: The country indicted two Jewish extremists suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents — a case that has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. (AP)

Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey must accept that it needs Israel, as the two countries seek to thrash out a deal on normalizing ties. (Gulf News)

TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS

Cybersecurity: More than 209,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. are unfilled, and postings are up 74% over the past five years, according to a Peninsula Press (a project of the Stanford University Journalism Program) 2015 analysis of numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Forbes)